‘Of course, darling,’ her father held her in his arms as she stood up. ‘I have to admit, though, that I had a feeling something like this might happen,’ he muttered grimly.
She looked up at him in stunned surprise. ‘You did?’ she asked warily.
‘A man like Andracas, so much in the public eye, was bound to drag you down there with him.’
‘It wasn’t Nick’s fault, Daddy,’ she had to be fair to him about this, he couldn’t have known Audra would do something as poisonous as this.
Her father looked down at her with concern in his eyes. ‘Then you are involved with him?’
She thought fleetingly of last night, and then dismissed it from her mind. ‘He’s just an acquaintance—’
‘Ellie, you don’t have to pretend with me,’ he gently interrupted. ‘I didn’t judge anything you did in the past, and I’m not going to judge you now.’
She shook her head. ‘But I’m really not involved with him.’
He arched dark brows. ‘Did you see the photograph that was with the article?’
‘No …’
He bent to pick up the newspaper, holding it out for her to look at. She gave a weary sigh at the photograph of Nick unlocking his car door outside her apartment. It showed him leaving late last night, his dark hair ruffled, a look of lazy passion still in his eyes. It was even more damning than the one of them leaving together Sunday morning.
‘You are involved with him, Ellie,’ her father told him softly. ‘Whether you think you are or not. And the publicity could get worse, you know.’
‘Worse?’ she choked in a disbelieving voice. ‘I don’t see how it could.’
‘Oh they’ll speculate about the baby’s father, delve into your past to try and find out who he was.’
‘They won’t succeed,’ she said dully. ‘Even he doesn’t know who he is.’
Her father sighed. ‘What do you think Andracas will have to say about this?’
She gave him a sharp look. ‘About what?’
‘The fact that you had a baby without it having a legal father. I’ve heard Greek men are a bit old-fashioned about things like that.’
‘Not only Greek men,’ her mouth twisted. ‘All men think that any woman who has a baby and isn’t married to the father is an easy conquest. I doubt Nick’s reaction will be any different to a hundred other men’s,’ she dismissed contemptuously.
‘You aren’t lovers already?’ her father seemed surprised, and knowing of Nick’s reputation that wasn’t so unusual.
The memory of last night flashed briefly into her mind, and was then dismissed. Last night, as with the night seven years ago, didn’t make them lovers. ‘No,’ she answered truthfully.
Her father seemed to visibly relax. ‘Then I would advise you, unless you’re actually in love with the man,’ he gave her a probing glance, ‘to stop seeing him.’
‘I’ll think about it, Daddy,’ she was still too numb to think properly, to assimilate what this latest development meant in her life. ‘I really will think about it,’ she assured him as the worried frown reappeared between his eyes.
‘All right, darling,’ he gently touched her cheek. ‘I’m only concerned for you, you know that.’
‘Yes,’ she hugged him tightly. ‘And I’m grateful to you for coming and telling me about this, I would have hated to have found out any other way.’
He nodded, his arm about her waist as she walked him to the door. ‘Take care, Ellie,’ he kissed her warmly. ‘And don’t let any of them get you down.’
‘I won’t,’ she assured him, her smile fading as soon as she had closed the door behind him.
Seven years, seven long years, and no one had even guessed she had a child. For days after it had happened she had tried to forget that night in Nick’s bed, until it became obvious that fate had decreed she should have an everlasting reminder.
Her feelings had been mixed when she first discovered she was pregnant, wonder for the life she could feel growing inside her, hate for the man who had put it there. She had hated Nick then as never before, would be eternally grateful for the love and support of her parents when she had decided to keep the. baby, even though she had refused to reveal the identity of the baby’s father to them. If her father had known it was Nick Andracas he would have confronted the other man with the knowledge, and then he would have had the humiliating experience of being told Nick believed her to be a whore.
Besides which, she had hated him, had wanted nothing more to do with him. She would care for her baby herself, would never let it be influenced by Nicholas Andracas’ cynicism and cruelty. And she had kept to that vow.
She felt even more wary of the second ring on her doorbell that morning. If it were the press after more details then she didn’t want to speak to them, and if it were Nick demanding to know if it were true she didn’t want to speak to him either. It was neither of these people, for either of those reasons.
Audra McDonald stood on the doorstep, her brows raised mockingly at Danielle’s lack of welcome. ‘I happen to have a couple of hours free this morning,’ she walked past Danielle in a cloud of perfume to take up a triumphant stance in the lounge. ‘And I thought I could come and sit for you.’
Danielle had to admire the other woman’s audacity, even if the sight of her now made her feel nauseated. ‘I won’t be working today,’ she said stiltedly.
‘No?’ auburn brows arched.
‘No,’ her mouth was tight.
‘That’s a pity,’ Audra drawled, her gaze going to the crumpled newspaper that still lay on the coffee-table. She picked it up, her long nails vividly scarlet against the white-grey of the paper. She glanced over at Danielle with a self-satisfied smile. ‘It’s a good likeness of Nick, isn’t it?’ she mocked.
She shrugged. ‘If you like that sort of photograph.’
‘Oh I don’t like it, far from it,’ Audra threw the newspaper down again with barely concealed anger. ‘But I knew as soon as I saw it that you and Nick are now lovers.’
Her mouth twisted. ‘You know how he looks when he’s aroused,’ she remembered mockingly.
The other woman flushed. ‘And how he looks when he’s made love to someone,’ she snapped.
Danielle’s eyes flashed deeply green. ‘And you gave that story to the newspapers just because you thought Nick and I had been to bed together?’ she said disgustedly.
‘I know you have,’ she rasped.
‘And just what did you hope to achieve by doing this to me?’
The other woman looked at her with venomous eyes. ‘If I can no longer have Nick you aren’t going to have him either!’
Danielle gave her a pitying glance. ‘Don’t you think that’s a little childish?’
The other woman flushed her anger. ‘If it works I don’t care what it is!’
Danielle shook her head. ‘You realise you won’t succeed in getting Nick back this way? He’ll realise, sooner or later, that you were behind this.’
‘I’m hoping he does,’ Audra’s expression was. ugly in her need for revenge. ‘It’s about time someone showed him that he can’t control other people’s lives the way he likes to.’ Her eyes glittered with dislike.
Danielle could almost pity the other woman—almost. ‘Did you have to involve me?’ she reasoned.
‘Why not?’ the actress shrugged. ‘I’ve put up with his other women, his taking me for granted, for over a year. If you hadn’t come along he might eventually have married me.’
‘Why would you have wanted that if he’s treated you so badly?’ she frowned.
‘Are you mad?’ Audra derided sharply. ‘If I were Mrs Nick Andracas I would never have to work again, ever. Not that I mind acting, but I don’t want to do it for the rest of my life. Nick will never marry me now, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing he’ll never marry you either!’
She sighed at the other woman’s vehemence. ‘You only had to ask me, I could have told you I’m not interested in becoming the wife of Nick
Andracas.’
‘I wanted to make sure he wasn’t interested in marrying you,’ the other woman bit out. ‘And he won’t be now,’ she added with relish. ‘One thing that has never entered into Nick’s plans are children. The domesticity of that sort of family life has never appealed to him. And fathering someone else’s bastard is something he would never do,’ she scorned.
Danielle was very pale, wishing she could tell the other woman exactly who the father of that bastard child had been. But the brief satisfaction she would feel over such a disclosure wouldn’t be worth the furore it would cause.
‘It’s amazing how you’ve managed to keep the child a secret for so long,’ Audra continued dismissively. ‘What is it by the way, a boy or a girl? It’s so difficult to tell when they’re still babies.’
‘A girl,’ she said abruptly.
‘She looked a pretty little thing—if you happen to like babies. I don’t,’ she grimaced. ‘And I don’t suppose it’s a baby now, that miniature must have been painted some time ago.’
‘Seven years.’
‘So where is your daughter now?’ Audra frowned. ‘Away at school or something?’
‘Or something,’ she nodded jerkily.
‘Very wise,’ the other woman drawled. ‘If I ever have any children—God forbid!—I’d send them away to school too. And in your case it serves a dual purpose, the kid is out of your way, but she’s also far away from being recognised as your daughter.’
‘I’ve never been ashamed of the existence of my daughter,’ Danielle told her harshly.
‘Of course you haven’t,’ Audra mocked. ‘That’s why you’ve hidden her existence for seven years!’
‘I haven’t—’
‘Oh don’t look so stricken, Danielle,’ the other woman snapped impatiently. ‘I would have done the same thing in your position, especially if I were after a big fish like Nick. Well you’ve lost him, I’m afraid,’ she said casually. ‘Better luck next time. Now if you aren’t in the mood to work I may as well leave.’
Both of them knew that Audra hadn’t come here with the intention of posing for her portrait, that her main aim had been to gloat over Danielle’s misfortune.
Danielle wondered if the other woman would feel quite so triumphant if she knew that the baby had never grown into the beautiful little girl she had promised to be at birth, that far from being sent away Danielle’s daughter had given up her battle to live only ten days after she was born, her tiny body too frail to survive any longer than that.
The baby had been born prematurely, the result of Danielle falling over in the street and starting off her labour pains. Her daugher had weighed in at just over two pounds, so small she looked as if she would fit into the palm of Danielle’s hand—if she had been allowed to touch her, that is. For ten days Danielle had only been able to look at her daughter through the glass of an incubator, until the night they woke her gently to tell her that the frail little baby had given up the will to live.
If she had thought she disliked Nick before it had returned with a vengeance at the death of her daughter, despising him with a bitter hatred, as if it were all his fault that her beautiful baby had died, as if the fact that he had thrown money at her mother for the time they had spent in bed together had somehow been transmitted to the baby and made her life less than worthless, as if her daughter hadn’t wanted to live when she had known she had been conceived for the price of two hundred pounds!
CHAPTER SIX
WHEN Nick arrived late that afternoon she was completely composed again, had managed to rebuff the pushy attention of the two reporters that had called personally at her door for more information on the child she had once given birth to. After suffering Audra’s vindictive glee earlier she felt confident enough now to deal with anyone who wanted to pry into her life.
She had expected Nick earlier than four-thirty, had thought he would be beating on her door demanding an explanation for the article they had printed about her today. When he did finally arrive he seemed very subdued, not like his usual commanding arrogance, looking at her with a glowering expression.
‘Can I get you a drink?’ Danielle offered lightly.
‘I’ve already had one,’ he bit out, pacing the lounge, his hands thrust into the pockets of the trousers to the grey three-piece suit he wore, the jacket unbuttoned to reveal the waistcoat taut against his flattened stomach. ‘I needed it,’ he added grimly.
‘Then sit down,’ she invited smoothly, her light green blouse and black skirt cool as well as smart. She had prepared for Nick’s arrival when she changed, wouldn’t meet him as the loose-moralled woman the newspapers had implied that she was.
‘I’d rather stand,’ he grated, stopping his pacing suddenly to look at her with narrowed eyes. ‘Is it true, Danielle?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Do you have a child?’
She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘No,’ she answered with complete honesty.
He seemed to visibly relax, closing his eyes as he sighed deeply. ‘Thank God for that. I—’
‘Now,’ she added with soft emphasis, looking at him with cool challenge.
Nick stiffened, his eyes narrowing once again. ‘What did you say?’ his breathing was shallow, his face suddenly haggard as he took in what she said.
‘Surely it’s obvious,’ she spoke with a casualness she was far from feeling, always very emotional when she talked about her daughter. ‘I did have a child, a little girl, but she died, several years ago.’
‘Dear God,’ he groaned, one hand up to his temple in numbed disbelief. ‘I didn’t—I can’t—Why didn’t you tell me?’ he rasped, angry with himself for being at a momentary loss for words.
She raised mocking brows. ‘It isn’t the sort of thing you blurt out over a drink one evening.’
‘Damn you, you could have—’
‘What?’ she looked at him with coolly unflinching eyes. ‘It’s none of your business what happens in my life, either now or years ago. Now is it?’
‘Damn you—’
‘Swearing at me won’t change anything,’ she derided.
‘Do you have any idea what it did to me to read something like that about you in that trashy newspaper?’ he demanded furiously, glaring at her with accusing eyes.
‘I know exactly what it was like to read something like that,’ she said with cold deliberation.
‘Hell, I’m sorry,’ he shook his head in regret. ‘I don’t know what I’m saying. It was such a shock—It would be to anyone, you have to see that.’
‘Only too well,’ she acknowledged flatly. ‘I’ve had people calling me and coming here all day who were just as shocked and surprised as you are.’
His eyes narrowed once again. ‘Were you married to the child’s father?’
She almost choked at the irony of him asking such a thing. ‘No,’ she bit out.
His hands clenched into fists at his sides. ‘Did you love him?’
‘I thought I did, at the time,’ she shrugged.
‘Then why—’
‘He didn’t feel the same way about me,’ she explained coldly. ‘I was just a body to warm his bed.’
‘The bastard!’ Nick looked positively violent, a pulse beating erratically to his jaw.
Danielle gave him a withering glance. Didn’t Nick recognise the sort of man he was to realise when he inadvertently judged himself? It would seem not. ‘Do you think so?’ she asked pointedly.
‘Of course I—Damn it, Danielle,’ he glared at her as her meaning became clear. ‘There’s a little bit more than that involved in our relationship.’
‘Is there?’
‘You know there is. God, Danielle, I wouldn’t leave you by yourself in a situation like that,’ he rasped angrily. ‘I wouldn’t leave any woman like that,’ he ground out.
Danielle could have hit him right then and there, could have pummelled his chest with her fists and told him that he had left her like that. But she didn’t do either of those things, remained outwardly calm. ‘No one is ac
cusing you of anything, Nick,’ she drawled. ‘But the fact that I’ve had a child does seem to bother you?’
‘Yes! No! It was shock, that’s all,’ he defended impatiently at her sceptical expression.
‘You do realise who told the newspapers that story about me, don’t you?’
‘Audra,’ he confirmed harshly. ‘Her contract with the play has already been terminated and her replacement found.’
Danielle felt a jolt of shock at how coldly ruthless he could be, and then chastised herself for feeling surprised by anything he did. What had happened between them last night changed nothing, his unselfishness then had just been another ploy to get her into bed with him. She could cope with her lapse better herself if she could believe that!
‘She hoped to destroy my interest in you once and for all,’ he continued grimly.
‘And would it have done?’ Danielle kept her voice even. ‘If my child had been alive?’
‘The situation doesn’t arise, does it,’ he dismissed without emotion.
‘But would it?’ she persisted in being given a straightforward answer, already convinced she knew what it was.
Nick looked angry at being pushed in this way. ‘I want to be your lover,’ he grated. ‘Not become a surrogate father to some other man’s mistake!’
Danielle felt a strange stillness come over her, a cold anger that made her hands shake before she put them into the pockets of her skirt out of view. If she hadn’t done that she may have given in to her earlier impulse to hit him! ‘Surrogate father to some other man’s mistake’! How dare he, how dare he say such a thing about their daughter?
The final barrier had been removed from the revenge she had once planned to take on him, the secret of her daughter’s birth no longer a secret, and no one, not even Nick himself, had any idea that he was the father. But that was all going to change, and very soon!
‘As you’ve already said, the situation doesn’t arise,’ somehow her voice managed to sound normal.
‘No,’ but he still didn’t sound too happy about this unexpected development in their relationship. ‘Do you still see him, this man?’ he looked at her with suspicion. ‘The father of your child?’
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